He set his hat on the back of the settee, then walked slowly toward the end of the bed. His eyes glittered. “I’m happy for them. For their marriage…” A crease grew between his dark brows. I’d never seem him like this… uncertain. Sheepish. He gripped the post of the bed. “I, on the other hand…”
Neither of us seemed to be breathing. I forced an inhale. An exhale. “You what?”
He gestured to the end of the bed, asking if he could sit. I nodded. He walked with focus, as if he had to force each step. When he sat, he kept far from my feet, placing his strong hands on his knees.
Those devastating eyes met mine. “I, on the other hand, had my marriage—if we want to call it that—annulled.”
A quiet sound of surprise escaped me. “Did you?” He gave me asmall nod, forcing the lock of hair at his brow forward. I wanted to wrap it around my finger. “And has becoming a wifeless, twice-married man made you like this? All bumbling and shy and impressively controlled.”
It was a gentle tease, but it made him somber, made his gaze darken. “I am holding myself like this because if I don’t, I will rip the covers and clothes from your body and ravish you so completely that you’ll lose all sense of time and place and self.” His hands went to fists on his knees. “But you’re not well enough for that—yet. So here I sit.Controlled.”
My eyes fell shut as a rush of longing washed over me. “I see.” I opened my eyes, held tight to the covers. “Why don’t you tell me what I’ve missed, then?”
He cleared his throat and tried to casually lean himself against the bedpost, so we better faced each other. A moment later he stood. “I think I’ll pace… while I tell you.”
My answering smile made him still; made him press a hand over his heart, as if it hurt. “What do you remember?” he asked cautiously.
A sharp discomfort filled me as I searched back though the coming memories. “I remember Halla performing a spell on her mother. I remember Eusia dying. Halla holding her in her arms.” My stomach went hollow. My voice broke. “I remember Aleka… my wing—”
He was at my side in a breath, kneeling at the side of the bed, and took my face in his warm hands. My tears fell fast, and he swiped at them with his thumbs. “Shhh,” he said, his lips against my forehead. “I’m sorry, Immy. I’m so sorry. I tried to fix it, but… I… I could only close the wound. There was so much blood.”
The devastation of it was speculative. As if it hung above me, and I didn’t know when it would fall. I gave a grateful nod and turned to press my lips to the palm of his hand.
“Did Halla… did she really kill her mother?” I asked through my sniffling.
Theo nodded. “And Agatha performed the same spell to kill Eusia. You must have taken the severing draught at the precise right time. With the spell, and your broken bond, there was nothing left to sustain Eusia.”
When my tears eased, he tried to rise again, but I clung fast to his wrists. “Stay. Please.” I didn’t want the distance. Not after everything.
He inclined his head, and when I moved over in the bed to make space for him, he sat beside me. His strong arm wrapped around my shoulders and tucked me into his side. “I’ll stay,” he mumbled into my hair. “Never leaving you again.”
The ship groaned. It was a gentle day and briny air rolled into the stateroom as the sea swayed and soothed us. I wanted to take comfort in his words.Never leaving you again.But they seemed more wish than truth. I burrowed closer, grateful for what I hadnow,and listened to the heavy drum of his heart.
“Is Halla the empress now?” I finally asked.
“It looks that way. Despite Nivala not naming her as heir. The court seems to adore her.” His voice went thick with concern. “We left the castle keep quickly after we found you. I demanded we get you on theEleuthiosso I could provide you proper care. I heard from the Obelian guards sent to speak with us that Halla… that she… spent that night in the pool chamber… with Eusia’s body. I sent them away with a petition for annulment.” His fingers stroked up and down my arm. “The next morning, she came here and on the deck she offered me the signed petition, but in exchange…”
I looked up at him. He shifted uncomfortably. “What did she want?”
He wouldn’t meet my gaze. “One of the books on magic.”
I craned further and stared at him with vexed disbelief. “You didn’t—”
“I did.” He met my glare then. “I’d read them all and decided to give her the book I thought most benign.” But an uneasiness hung over him regardless. “Spells for health, for midwifery, and the like.” He cleared his throat. “There were also many spells in the same language that the death spell had been written in.”
A language I’d never seen—one that Eusia had known. Foreboding throttled me. I knew magic well enough now to know that none of it wasbenign.And now that Halla had such a book, I shuddered to think what magic might become in her hands when it mixed with her grief and anger and desperation.
I shifted beside him, trying to escape my anxiety. “Did she seem… upset to part with you?”
He gave a dark chuckle. “There was no fondness between us, Imogen. Our union was duty at its worst.” His lips pressed against above my ear. “I think we were both happy to be separated.”
“I don’t expect she will just fade away, though, Theo.” I looked up into his verdant eyes. “She knows she’s my sister now. And she’s so angry—”
“I know, I know—” He turned to face me fully. “We’ll deal with her if we must… but for now you need rest from vanquishing.” The ship gave a steep roll and pressed me closer to him. He kissed my temple. “I expect you need food too.”
“Yes,” I whispered as he set the softest kiss to my eyelid.
“And a bath.” Another kiss to my cheek. I felt him smile there. “And a chamber pot.”
